I've always enjoyed the Witches of Canewdon, especially for the details about there being 3 of cotton and 3 of silk, and that whenever a stone falls from the church tower,a Witch shall soon die.
But what are some other folklore tales from this county? Less well known ones are doubly welcome.
Could the various horticulture culture practiced by native Americans by less conductive to Wolf attacks?
The biggest surprise for me in Nioh 2 is that they put Shouten Douji as a Boss, this character is very famous and is one of the most deadly Oni in history.
Do you know his story?
do you know why he said."and you Raiko...you plied me with great drink, but i forget not what happened after" after you defeat him?
Let's go for the story:
The story is set on Mount Oeyama.
late 10th century in Heian (kyoto) period.
The capital is plauged by demons abducting young women and the daughter of a government official and with some divination it is confirmed that the culprit reside on Mount Oeyama.
The emperors orders to Minamoto no Yorimitsu (Also called Raiko) and his four lieutenants ( 4 heavenly kings, which one is Kintaro, the one you fight in the dojo for Axe training)
Raiko and his men pray to various buddhist deities and then..disguised as mountain ascetics they head into the hills in search of the oni's hideout and they meet 3 old men who explain that the lead oni, Shuten Douji is particularly fond of Alcohol and they give to Raiko and his men a magical sake that is poisonous to oni but beneficial to humans.
Turns out that the 3 old men were the deities that they prayed before and after giving indication they magically disappears.
Moving forward they met a young lady who explains that Shuten Douji has a light-red skin, he has a human appearance during the day but at night he transform into a 10-foot Oni.
Minamoto Yorimitsu on Mount Γe (Yorimitsu Γeyama-iri no zu) Date:1858 by Ochiai Yoshiiku
Raiko and his men, still disguised as monks are now in front of the Oni's cave.
Through a mix of fortune and good gesture they are invited from Shuten Douji to come and drink togheter, dancing and sharing the magical sake that Raiko received from the 3 deities before.
The Drinking Party on Mount Γe (Γeyama fukuju shusei) Date:1853 By utagawa Kuniyoshi
While the sake had no effect on Raiko, Shuten Douji became drunk and eventually passed out but he transformed into his original form...a big oni with big horns protruding through the spiked red bristles on his scalp, the beard is now wildly shaggy and his limbs are now bigger like those of a bear.
[ U
... keep reading on reddit β‘
I spawned fucking Dave Lee Roth apparently.
Spoiler for the young 'uns: https://www.insider.com/van-halen-brown-m-ms-contract-2016-9
(Famous rock legend. Good story too!)
You see it all the time in retellings of old West Indies/Carribean pirate stories where they supposedly sound like Hector Barbossa; slurred speech, deformed brit/scot/irish accent. So I was just wondering where this came from in history and if pirates actually talked like that.
With the Nordic Pantheon of yore being slowly eroded by the Imperial presence, ancient tales and folklore passed down generation to generation have been lost. Without Jhunal we didn't scribe our words and songs, only spoke and sung them and had them memorized so that they could be carried era to era but alas! Here we are now, gathered around the hearth and I have for you a tale that survived the most foul stomachs of Alduin. It is a tale of our oldest companion, a gift of the Warrior-Wife and the Handmaiden to ease our troubles in the wilds.
"Once upon the great back when, there existed a village of Nordlings who suffered greatly the beasts of the land. While they had capable hunters, they were outmatched sheer number of wolves, skeevers, and even mudcrabs! Meek and hungry, the Nordlings gathered before Kyne at the hearth of their temple and prayed for forgiveness, for an abjuration, for a solution. The collective breaths of these weakened voices tickled the ear of Kyne who looked down on them favorably for their reverence. She devised a plan as these creatures harassed the village at night, the hearing and smelling of man was stunted and when the moons hung high they rested in the honor of Shor.
Kyne decided to make a creature that would be a companion to man. Keen eyes that make no mistake, a strong nose that works one-hundred times over than any man, ears that could detect the difference between the snarl of a man and the snarl of a beast, a quick and clever mind with tactic and strategy, but above all, a booming voice and loyalty to man so great that it may only be matched by Shor. Kyne then approached her handmaiden and asked for her oldest hair and she delivered, a strand of snow-white to be the base for making this creature.
*It was an exceptionally dark night. Clouds left over from an evening rain still clutched and collected heavily, blocking the starry sky leaving the only illumination to be the fires of the village. The villagers had gathered together and waited for another raid from the creatures of the night. The men armed themselves with spears, axes, and bows while the women and children remained inside the temple and continued praying for a miracle from Kyne. A pack of wolves had descended, numerous and legion, with snarling faces and fangs so large that they can never smile but only show hunger and anger. But just as they were about to confront men in one final battle, rustling and the sound of quick feet charged forward
... keep reading on reddit β‘Yesterday I watched "A serious man", and there's a scene where in a Bar Mitzvah all the public start to sing some song just after the rabbi (is it the rabbi?) says 'amen'. I immediately recognized the melody as a traditional folkloric song local to Valencia, Spain. Supposedly, the song is original from Alicante in the XX century.
My guess is that the song might actually originate from the Spanish jews, before their expulsion from Spain in 1492, and the lyrics (containing extremely obscene language) might be an intentional mockery of the original jewish song. The melody is not 100% the same, but I think it's recognizable at the beginning.
Here is a youtube link from the Valencian song, maybe you can tell me the name of the original one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcKL_Q7uTYU
Thank you!
New to the area and am curious about what sort of spooky stuff might be found here!
(Just asking if there were any kinds of monster hunters by the name of witchers in European folklore. I ask because i heard mention of a witcher in what seemed to be a Dark-Ages inspired lullaby, and it made no clear indication of it being tied to the game.)
My players are in about to go into a dukes mansion, I need a monster that he has been able to tame or train into servitude. I need it to be strong enough to fight a party of LV4-3 players, I want it to have a creative piece of lore and a weakness for interesting combat.
I just posted asking for historical context, but I also curious how societies tried to recover from the bubonic plague socially.
Does anyone know if there are fairytales, folklore, stories that were told to warn generations about the bubonic plague after it happened?
It had a huge impact on the population, so it must have made a huge cultural impact too, right?
